20 Ways That Writing Can Be Fun and Enjoyable

Writers can be a grumpy bunch, me included. We are rather vocal about it too.

You’ll find us in social media groups firing up each other’s dissatisfaction. We’ll stoke the fires of, ‘Woe is me, I’m a creative and no-one understands me’. I’ve been there and done that, so no harsh judgement here.

What if we were to lighten up a little and remember why we started writing? I’m confident that most of us didn’t go into this because we had to in order to make money from the off. Now that’s a funny joke right there.

We started this because we wanted to. Most of us began with it being fun and enjoyable. Can we not try to keep that going?

I know sometimes it can be a chore, and there have been times when I’ve wanted to bite off the head of anyone telling me to, ‘just enjoy it’, but maybe some balance is needed?

Writing can be fun, possibly not on the 30th draft but let’s be optimistic. Maybe it will only be 29 this time.

20 Ways That Writing Can Be Fun and Enjoyable

1. We kill people for a living without fear of a criminal record, getting covered in blood, or having any guilt. We already have one job satisfaction level up on a serial killer.

2. We get to make stuff up and call it a job. Not many jobs will allow you to come up with ideas from the depths of your imagination and pass it off as being work, apart from being a politician, of course.

3. We can be a child again in letting our imaginations roam free. I watch children and am a little jealous in how they can get away with telling the world that today they are a warrior queen, and we all accept it.

Then I realise that I can be bad ass, slayer royalty if I want to as well, albeit through a character. I don’t think the world is ready for me to play dressing-up in the high street quite yet.

4. We can write in our PJs, onesies or other ridiculous casual attire. Those who go to work have to put on normal clothes.

I love that I can write whilst rocking serious bed head and fluffy jim jams.

5. We can be Darth Vader, Mumm-Ra or Cruella de Vil as we unleash our wrath and anger upon characters in our works.

Unlike these villains though, we always get away with it, until the reviews come in at least.

6. We get to play with our pets whilst we’re writing. Most people cannot take their cat to work. To be honest, neither should I, considering how needy she is.

7. We are magicians and sorceresses with words. We get to play with them, mix them up, stick them where we want to, and make them as powerful as we possibly can.

8. We can write about the weirdest and most wonderful things and pretty much get away with it.

Real life may scorn our obsession with graphic novels, but in the writing world we can fangirl or fanboy away to our heart’s content.

9. We can play God by building our own worlds.

Don’t like the one you’re living in? No problem. Time to build a new kingdom where writing and reading is law and the critics aren’t allowed in. It’s our grown up version of a cushion fort.

10. We can amuse ourselves and other writers with the memes that take the piss out of writers, passing them off as genuine social media engagement and marketing.

11. Stationery shopping is a work necessity. We can immerse ourselves in the loveliness of pens, pencils, notebooks, and the like, whilst knowing it’s all going to be used for work purposes.

No lurking in the stationery cupboard trying to find something a little more pretty than a refill pad for us.

12. Reading is part of our job. We’re often told that writers should be readers and I’m certainly not arguing with that!

I love that I can curl up in bed on a rainy day with a great book and say that I’m working. Before that was called ‘being a lazy cow’.

13. We can blog about writing and be as ranty or as lovely as we want to be. No one may be reading it but at least we’re getting our issues out rather than keeping them all in.

14. We can make a complete dick of ourselves. We can sing off key, dance around the room to get some oxygen to our brains, indulge in our strange writing rituals, or use fruity language when it goes wrong.

We write like nobody is watching, because they aren’t.

15. We become very familiar with ourselves, usually through talking to ourselves.

I am learning that I can be pretty chatty sometimes and I need to shut the hell up. Other times my voice is great at solo cheerleading. Go us, er, I mean, me.

16. We give ourselves some good old belly laughs when we read through our first drafts. If we don’t laugh, we will cry.

So let’s focus upon how a first draft shows our inability to type, spell, keep out of plot holes, or string a coherent sentence together. Ha, ha, ha … *injecting all the humour she possibly can*.

17. We can spend a whole day researching what our main character should look like and use our internet perving over our favourite celebrities as a legitimate writing exercise.

18. We get to interview our characters and pretend we’re hard-boiled detectives, shining a light in their eyes, and demanding the truth.

19. We can look at shiny pictures and fonts and genuinely write this off as research for our book cover, albeit before we’ve typed a single word. We are magpies for the shiny.

20. We get to ignore the phone and the door because we’re working from home and no-one should stand in the way of genius. This is great if you’re anti-social, introverted, or possibly both.

Nothing funnier than looking down at another person trying to sell crap on your doorstep and knowing that you’ve clocked them, they’ve seen you, and still that door isn’t opening.

So there you have it my writer friends. Let’s not forget that sometimes this writing gig can be fun and enjoyable.

Oh, you’re elbows deep in editing right now, the kids are screeching in your ears, you’re on a tight deadline, and the computer has blown up? Still ‘fun’ eh? *ducks for cover*.

Love it. 11 is my favorite though I’m trying not to indulge too often for reasons of not being able to take it all with me while I travel. I did get two lettering subscription box subscriptions recently though soooooo. But I also got some fancy reusable whiteboard notebooks so I don’t have to ship used ones home. 🙂